A Little of This, a Little of That

Spitblood has laid down an intriguing challenge – Pick the 49ers first-day draft picks for fun and prizes, the top prize being a smokeless ash tray. No, we will think of something else for the top prize. Who’s interested?

The latest Pro Football Weekly had three anonymous takes from NFL football people on the tampering charge leveled against the 49ers.

“… league wide observers agree that the tampering penalty doesn’t reflect well on new Niners GM Scot McCloughan, who is under major pressure to oversee the Niners’ transition back to being a respectable organization.”

“How many teams get caught for tampering? … The worst part was being embarrassed by the league.”

“What the Bears did to the 49ers was disrespectful and low class. They did not have to treat it the way they did.”

Bryant Young hasn’t completely closed the door on retirement. He hasn’t filed his papers with the league yet. He’s also engaging in plenty of team activities including the annual ski event last weekend. Young has also spent some time at the team facility lately.

But can he stomach another year of disappointment? Young said at the end of the season that it was too tough for him mentally to go through another losing campaign.

Tully Banta-Cain won a charity GoKart race in the HP parking lot Sunday in a benefit for the Loneliest Road Campaign, which raises awareness and funds for pediatric cancer research. Nearly all the celebrities were 49ers or former 49ers.

Jeff Ulbrich, Young, J.J. Stokes, Keena Turner and former 49ers fullback and current Raiders running backs coach Tom Rathman all took part. Banta-Cain had an unfair advantage, he said he raced GoKarts twice a week at a little track in New England when he was with the Patriots.

Ulbrich made the biggest splash with his daring driving. He sent himself and others careening into the barrier.

“Well, I’m the best athlete out here,” Ulbrich announced in a bit of trash talk.

“Hey, whatever,” Banta-Cain shot back.

Later, Young said that Ulbrich was driving “dirty.”

All the players and former players had a blast.

“It was a lot of fun,” Banta-Cain said. “It’s a great cause and it needs some publicity.”